Microplastics in subsurface water and zooplankton from eight lakes in British Columbia
Abstract
Microplastics are a global contaminant of concern, but we have little information on the characteristics and bioavailability of these pollutants in western Canadian lakes. Here, we quantify and characterize microplastics in subsurface water and zooplankton from eight lakes in BC, Canada. By sampling water and zooplankton, we provide insight into the fraction of microplastics entering the food web. We found 0.607 ± 0.153 microplastics per litre in subsurface water, 0.01 ± 0.011 microplastics per copepod, and 0.02 ± 0.014 microplastics per Daphnia. Microplastic pollution was similar in all lakes sampled and showed no relationship with local population density. Fibers were the dominant morphology observed in all lakes, and Raman spectroscopy identified polyester as the dominant polymer found both in lakes and within zooplankton. Zooplankton generally ingested microplastics that were shorter than their body length and that fell on the smaller end of the range of available microplastics. The prominence of polyester fibers and PET films and fragments suggests that the likely sources of microplastics to these lakes are recreational activities and atmospheric deposition.
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Polyester microplastic fibers are one of the most dominant morphologies and polymer types found in the environment and within organisms.
“We chose to investigate the effects of polyester microplastic fibers because they are one of the most dominant morphologies and polymer types found in the environment (Klasios & Tseng, 2023;Napper et al., 2023) and within organisms (Rebelein et al., 2021).”
From No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities (2024) · cites this paper as Klasios & Tseng, 2023
The size of the fibers used in the experiment falls within the documented range of fiber sizes found within zooplankton.
“A broad size range of fibers has been found within zooplankton (Jemec et al., 2016;Kim et al., 2021;Klasios & Tseng, 2023;Md Amin et al., 2020), and the size of the fibers used in our experiment falls within this documented range.”
From No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities (2024) · cites this paper as Klasios & Tseng, 2023
Cites
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Klasios, N., Kim, J. O., & Tseng, M. (2024) · Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry · doi:10.1002/etc.5797 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
“We chose to investigate the effects of polyester microplastic fi bers because they are one of the most dominant morphologies and polymer types found in the environment (Klasios & Tseng, 2023; Napper et al., 2023) and within organisms (Rebelein et al., 2021).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSelf-citation
- Authors
- Klasios, N., & Tseng, M.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Venue
- Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
- Publisher
- Canadian Science Publishing
- Published
- 2023-08-01
- Volume
- 80
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1248-1267
- ISSN
- 0706-652X (ISSN-L)
- 1205-7533
- OpenAlex
- W4360992384
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 1.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
- Keywords
- microplastics, groundwater, zooplankton, copepods, Daphnia, polyester fibers, microplastic ingestion, food web transfer, lake pollution, British Columbia lakes, atmospheric deposition, microplastic morphology
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